Jemma Monkey
by fezwearingjellybananas
Summary: There is a mysterious box in Coulson's office and Fitz can't resist just a little look. Which might or might not turn into a monkey rescue mission.


Fitz didn't pay much attention to the comings and goings of the other agents. The only thing that confused him was why Mack had to leave to collect them and why Coulson was in his lab asking what he knew about shape changing DNA (the answer being ask Simmons, she was the biochemist, he was an engineer, or that had been the intended message he had tried to get across).

Which left a slightly confused Fitz mostly alone in his bunk while the other scientists tried to do whatever it was they were doing in his lab.

He went to look for Skye, maybe she knew what was going on. Subconscious Jemma told him he should try and be more involved.

But she was talking to Hunter, probably so he didn't argue with Bobbi and Fitz couldn't see May or Trip so he went up to Coulson's office. Coulson didn't seem to be about, but there was a strange box on his desk with strange noises coming from it. Fitz debated going to investigate, it was Coulson's office, there might be something dangerous there, but if it was dangerous, why wasn't it in the lab?

A lot of loud noise sounded out. And Fitz might forget a lot of things, but he knew a monkey when he heard one. He peeked inside the box.

"Marmosets. Look Simmons, monkeys."

"Yes Fitz," Subconscious Jemma said. "I wonder where they came from."

"Brazil. Common Marmosets come from Brazil."

"No, Fitz, I mean these ones."

"Oh, er, Coulson, Coulson probably found them in a er, er,"

"A lab?"

"Yes. Poor things. I doubt Coulson knows the first thing about monkeys."

"You do though," Subconscious Jemma said, a mischievous look in her eyes. "You know lots about monkeys. You could look after them really well."

"Won't Coulson m, m, m-"

"Miss them? No, I'm sure it will be fine. They all know you're our monkey expert Fitz."

"Okay."

Fitz gathered up the four Marmosets in his hands. The smallest jumped up cuddled into neck.

"That tickles, stop it."

Fitz didn't think this was usual behaviour for a monkey, but she seemed happy.

No one saw him as he made his way back to his bunk, or if they did, they didn't say anything.

"I don't have anything for you to eat," Fitz said, thinking that must be why they were all looking up at him expectantly, except the small one who hadn't come down from his shoulder yet. He stroked her a little. "I'm going to call you Jemma Monkey." Excited chattering followed that. "Calm down monkeys, Coulson will hear. What about you?" Fitz asked the largest monkey. "You could be Mack Monkey." He was sure she scowled at that. "No? Hunter Monkey? Coulson Monkey?" It actually stomped its feet at the idea of being called Hunter Monkey. "Unless you're a girl. Skye Monkey? Bobbi Monkey?" She seemed to like the last one. "Bobbi Monkey." The middle monkey jumped up onto him. "You're smaller, are you a girl too?" It looked like it was shaking its head. "A boy monkey. Trip Monkey? So you must be May Monkey. Unless you want to be Skye Monkey." She seemed to dislike that suggestion. "May Monkey it is."

"Now we just need to find a Skye, Hunter, Mack and Coulson Monkey," Subconscious Jemma said.

"But shouldn't we take them back to Brazil? That's where they like living. That's where all the food is. I don't have the right food for them."

"Don't they use them in biomedical research?"

"Because they're similar to humans. They would probably be happier in Brazil, wouldn't you Jemma Monkey?"

"Nonsense Fitz, look how happy Jemma Monkey is with you."

Fitz looked down at her, then back up to Subconscious Jemma, who had disappeared again.

"I'll look after you Jemma Monkey," he decided. "What about eggs, Marmosets eat bird's eggs, will you eat chicken eggs? Stay here a minute."

Fitz made sure to close the door so the monkeys couldn't get out before running to the kitchen. He grabbed the box of eggs and turned to go, almost running into Skye.

"Hey Fitz. What are you doing with those?"

"Oh, erm, these, erm, erm-"

"Take all the time you need."

"Erm, erm, experiments." Technically it wasn't a lie. It was an experiment as to whether they would eat them or not.

"Oh. Did Coulson ask you about the shape changing DNA?"

"I'm an engineer, Simmons is the biochemist, that's her field. Ask her."

"Oh right, yes. Good luck with your eggs."

Fitz hurried back to find the monkeys, who were all sitting exactly where he left them. He broke an egg into a cup and put it down for them. May Monkey turned her nose up at it.

"You have to eat monkeys. And I don't know what else to feed you."

They still ignored it.

"Fine, maybe you're just not hungry." Jemma Monkey jumped up onto his shoulder again. "You like it up here, don't you? I have a friend, Simmons, she always puts her hand there. She's lovely Simmons. But she left. I guess she just couldn't handle me being different. I can't always, I can't always remember the words. Subconscious Jemma tells me what they are most of the time, but Real Jemma can't anymore. We're both different. I broke." Jemma Monkey snuggled in closer at that, and started chattering, as if she was trying to tell him something. Almost as if she was arguing with him. "I wish I had my Simmons back Jemma Monkey. But she doesn't like me anymore. We're not FitzSimmons anymore, we're not even Fitz and Simmons."

"Fitz?" A knock came from the door. "Are you in there?"

"Quick, hide," Fitz told the monkeys. "You're supposed to be hiding."

"Fitz, I'm coming in." Coulson opened the door. "I thought they might be here."

"Who?"

"I think you know who."

"No."

"Fitz, there is a monkey on your shoulder."

"Oh look, so there is. I wonder how that got there."

"I need them back Fitz."

"Oh." Fitz handed the monkeys over, Jemma Monkey scrambling to stay on his shoulder. "No, you have to go now monkeys. Bye bye."

Fitz waved the monkeys off as Coulson headed off, presumably back to his office.

"It's all right mate," Hunter said from where he was standing by the doorway. Fitz hadn't even noticed he was there. "I'm sure we can find you some other monkeys. Ones that will actually stay monkeys." Fitz frowned. Were they going to test the shape changing DNA on the monkeys? But they couldn't do that, not to the Marmosets. He was going to rescue them and take them back to Brazil.

Fitz ran after Coulson, leaving a confused Hunter.

They were already giving the monkeys something when he got to the lab.

"No stop it, leave my monkeys alone."

"Fitz, those aren't monkeys," Skye said. "That's, well, you'll see."

Agent May was now sitting in the spot May Monkey had been in. And Bobbi Monkey grew into Agent Morse, Trip Monkey grew into Trip which meant Jemma Monkey was going to grow into Simmons.

"Oh look, you told her how you feel," Subconscious Jemma said before Fitz swatted her away. This was _bad _didn't she understand that? "Of course I understand Fitz, I'm part of you. But at least she knows now."

"Agent Fitz," Bobbi said. "If you ever try to name me after Hunter again, you will regret it, understand?"

"Yes. You, erm, erm, erm-"

"Remember everything? Yes."

"Oh dear."

* * *

Fitz was not hiding later, no matter what everyone else said. He wasn't hiding, he was sulking because he missed his monkeys, that was all Skye, he was defiantly not hiding from Simmons.

She still found him.

"Fitz?"

"Simmons."

"How are you Fitz?"

"A little, er, erm, erm-"

"Missing your monkeys?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sure we can find you some other ones. HYDRA have some in their labs. I'm sure they would be more happy with you."

"We need to save them from HYDRA, HYDRA are bad. I bet they don't even like monkeys. And they can live here."

"Leo Fitz, monkey rescue. It has a nice ring to it."

"I like monkeys. But, I don't, I don't understand-"

"How we got turned into monkeys?"

"Yeah."

"HYDRA filled the Bus with some kind of gas. Next thing we know, we're monkeys. Trip went to come back in and got a face full of gas as the door opened, and Hunter had to call Mack because he couldn't fly the Bus. We managed to retrieve the canister it came in, but no one can work out how to get into it. You could help me look."

"Could I be turned into a monkey?"

"Hopefully not, but they found a way to undo it. Just in case you are."

"I think I would like being a monkey."

"You probably would."

"Come on Simmons, let's go and do science."

"Some FitzSimmons science?"

"Lots of FitzSimmons science."

* * *

**Author's Note: Marmosets are little and the cover image is not not to scale. I should probably point that out. **


End file.
